The phrase “content is king” has gone way beyond beating a dead horse at this point.  By now everyone is well aware of the role relevant, engaging, optimized content plays in marketing strategies.  The only real question is how to create the content that is going to gain interest, drive conversions, and satisfy search engines.

There’s a lot of noise out there from competitors clamoring to gain the attention of your target audience and you need to find ways to cut through and reach consumers.  Here are just a few pointers to help you write better online marketing content.

Create Clear Goals

Any plan for success begins with knowing the end point, and we’re talking about specific, actionable, achievable goals that you can set concrete steps to reach.  Writing better content may seem somewhat nebulous – as in, difficult to measure results – but you can set more tangible goals related to this task.

Perhaps your end goals when you create content are to see increases in traffic, conversions, and sales, just for example.  If you don’t see these results when you tweak your content, you’re going to have to try a different approach.

Until you know what you hope to accomplish in terms of results that can be measured, you’re going to have a problem creating a plan that will take you to a predestined endpoint.

Balance Your Message

There are two elements your content marketing strategy needs to embody: building relationships with consumers and providing a clear call to action.  It’s important to balance these out so that you can not only connect with consumers, but also make sales.

If you are too forceful with your sales pitch, you could end up alienating consumers that are sensitive to the constant barrage of marketing that bombards them daily.  If, on the other hand, you focus too much on creating personal interactions with customers, your marketing message could get lost in translation, so to speak.

Striking a balance is essential if you want to meet the dual goals of making sales and building relationships with customers so that they become loyal patrons.  Your content should therefor provide value for consumers, building trust and rapport so that your audience is more receptive when you finally make your sales pitch.

Titles

Consider that the title for any given content is more than just a teaser.  Your title is just as important as your content, and some people posit that it’s even more crucial to nail your title since it is what draws people to read your content.

There are plenty of tips and tricks for creating the “perfect” title, but the highlights are that titles must be clear, concise, and compelling.  You want readers to know exactly what they’re getting, you need to keep titles short and to the point, and you must have some kind of hook that readers find enticing enough to take the time to click.

Shareability

In this modern world of social media, everyone wants to share.  It’s important to understand two things when it comes to sharing content.

First, people want to share because they gain social currency.  Your content can make them appear smart, timely, well-informed, or even funny or edgy.  This is something to consider if you want readers to spread your content to others in their networks.

Most people are also busy, though.  They want sharing to be easy.  Adding buttons for sharing is therefore essential, and you might want to consider alternative forms of content such as infographics and videos, for example.

Storytelling

People crave personal interactions, so the last thing you want is to come across as the faceless, corporate entity.  Storytelling in content marketing is about more than just engaging consumers – it’s about telling your story, and content creation provides a unique opportunity to do so.

When you do it correctly and keeping your end goals in mind, you can build lasting relationships with consumers and create a strong bond of brand loyalty in the process.